


I Tried Everything

by agoldfishnamedgail



Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: Baby Laurel, F/F, Inspired by Real Events
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-05
Updated: 2020-06-05
Packaged: 2021-03-04 01:01:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,449
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24555097
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/agoldfishnamedgail/pseuds/agoldfishnamedgail
Summary: An exhausted Sara makes her way home to her family - only to find utter chaos.
Relationships: Sara Lance/Ava Sharpe
Comments: 12
Kudos: 145





	I Tried Everything

**Author's Note:**

> Just imagine a world where Ava and Sara somehow obtained a baby when she was 3-4 months old. Maybe someday I'll write that.

Sara was tired beyond anything she had felt in years. The floor of the Waverider was looking more and more inviting as she waited for her full team to be cleared by Gideon. They had spent four days chasing after the latest fugitive. And that chase had taken them all over the Amazonian rain forest and there were more than enough obstacles to sting or bruise or bite every one of the Legends along the way. Sara rejected the floor - both because of the unprofessionalism of just laying down in front of Zari and Ray, the last two to be cleared, and becuase once they were cleared, she get to go home to her family. She had fiercely missed her wife and their 8 month old daughter. So she leaned further into the wall behind her and imagined the comfort of the bed she was about to slide into, curling up around Ava's warmth. She was startled out of her reverie by Gideon.

"Ms. Tomaz, Mr. Palmer, you are cleared to go, though I'd suggest taking it easy the next 24 hours" They both removed the med cuff from their wrists when Sara piped in

"No team meeting in the morning. We'll reconvene tomorrow at dinner, check the timeline then. Whole team gets a day of recovery. Now, off to bed"

"Good night Captain" Ray gave a cheerful nod and walked into the hall

"Night cap'n" Zari mumbled, looking near asleep while still walking.

"Good night." Sara quietly responded.

Seeing them turn the corner, she tapped her Time Courier and opened a portal to home choosing to appear in the living room so she could peek in on Laurel on her way to bed. Instead of a dark and peaceful room, Sara entered what could only be described as chaos.

She first noticed that every light on the first floor was on and then registered the ear splitting scream coming from her daughter. Immediately zero-ing in on the noise, she found Ava bouncing a very angry Laurel while pacing in front of the couch.

"Ava?" Sara gently questioned, it was clear she had not heard the portal.

Ava swung around so quickly, Sara thought she might snap in half. Her eyes were bloodshot and her face red and tear streaked. Her hair had come partially out of it's holder and judging by the looks of it, Sara guessed it had happened sometime the previous day. She was dressed in pajama pants that she only wore on laundry day and a tank top that had quite a lot of food and other debris stuck to it.

"Ava!" Sara's tone immediately shifted into concern, "What's wrong? What happened?" She rushed over to the pair running her eyes over them, checking for injury.

The tears started to fall down Ava's face again, "I can't get her to stop. She's been crying for two days."The panic and exhaustion in her face were unmatched. Laurel continued to scream. "I don't know what to do. I've done everything. I've changed her, fed her, we went on a walk, we went for a drive, teething ring, pacifier. I changed her clothes. I've checked her temperature about 3 dozen times. I gave her some tylenol thinking she might be teething. I called the doctor but with no fever and normal eating there wasn't a reason to bring her in. Nothing had worked. Sara I can't take it." The pitch in her voice had risen as she talked, reaching a truly exasperated level.

"Ok." She rested a hand on Ava's arm. "Ok," she repeated and reached for Laurel. The shift in parents only made her angrier, but it was clear Ava needed a break. "Have you slept?"

"Since when?" Ava asked still looking at Laurel as if staring at her would reveal the answer.

"That answers that question." Sara started to rock the baby while she came up with a plan. Laurel's screams quieted enough to let her think."Ok. Ava," the taller blonde's eyes finally found her wife's, "how about you go shower and I'll put together a snack and then take this one out for a walk or a drive. Just something to give you some quiet."

"Sara look at you, you're more tired than I am." It had been evident as soon as she had really looked at the woman now trying to soothe their baby.

"Aves, I'm fine. I'll have some coffee or something." Ava wanted to argue. But she had lost all will.

"I want to say I'm fine and we can both handle it. But I can't." Her shoulders dropped.

Sara shifted Laurel to her left side and reached out with her right right hand, resting it on the side of Ava's neck "Babe, it's ok. Let's get you taken care of and then we'll figure it out. Together. ok?"

"m'k" Ava conceded.

Sara pulled Ava a bit closer and gave her a kiss on the cheek. "Now, go get in the shower."

"The smell's that bad?" Ava started to smell herself.

"Not the smell so much as the various streaks of god knows what in you hair and your left shoulder blade." Ava lifted her hands to her hair and her eyes widened. It was obvious she hadn't really known the state she was in.

"Eew."

"Yeah."

"Maybe just a little couch nap first." with Sara home, Ava's adrenaline had stopped rushing and she was becoming very aware of her exhaustion.

"No. Shower, snack, bed. Those are the rules." Sara answered with as stern as a tone as she thought Ava could handle.

"Some automaton in a suit who doesn't need sleep must have made those rules" Ava grumbled.

"She did. And I still married her." Sara gave Ava's shoulder a kiss and then pushed her towards the stairs. "Shower." She ordered and then watched a moment to confirm Ava was actually moving in that direction. Satisfied she was at least walking into the bathroom, Sara turned to the kitchen. It was then she noticed the utter disaster their living space had become in three days. "Whoa." There were blankets and pillows and clothes from both Ava and Laurel all over the living room. The coffee table was covered in baby detritus - books, small toys, a couple of burp clothes, what looked like part of an apple on a plastic plate, and several sippy cups.

The kitchen counter was cluttered with a number of food containers - puffs and pouches, bibs, a few bottles and the formula container along with whatever Ava had been feeding herself - which largely looked like peanut butter toast and cheerios.

"What happened here, kiddo?" Laurel had quieted to whimpering, but was still moving around as if unable to settle.

Sara kept a tight grip on the baby, letting her move around without falling and opened the refrigerator to come up with a snack plan. Her assessment of the kitchen told her Ava probably hadn't eaten much for vegetables in a couple days. It was late and Ava was exhausted so it would have to be light. And a scan of the fridge added "grocery shopping" to her list of things to do to help pick up after whatever had transpired the last couple days.

Quickly settling on an omelette, she heard the shower turn on up stairs. Laurel continued to violently shift around in her mother's arms, but in just a few short months, both Ava and Sara had become adept at cooking with one arm. She tossed some wilted spinach and some mushrooms into a saute pan and started to collect some of the items from the counter and put them in the dishwasher or trash - she was suddenly reminded of her time in Ava's purgatory - taking care of a never ending pile of dishes - and laughed to herself over how terrifying it was then, and how necessary and comforting it felt now; to come home and take care of her wife and their kid.

She finished making the omelette and paired it with a large glass of water, covering the omelette with a pan lid to keep it warm. She moved into the living room and picked up the blankets and clothes, making a small pile of laundry to be washed when they all woke up. She'd leaned over to collect some of the books when Laurel began crying again - clearly unhappy with the movement. Satisfied that the rooms looked a little less like a war zone, she bundled a now screaming Laurel into her car seat and took her and the stroller out the front door, leaving Ava to eat and hopefully lay down in relative quiet.

Sara walked with Laurel for more 30 minutes, and then drove around in the car for another hour. Laurel continued to cry. Feeling desperate and beginning to wonder if the doctor was wrong, Sara found a parking spot near the river. It was after 2am, but the lights sparkling off the water might be enough to have some calming effect on the baby and now herself. She opted to skip the baby carrier, planning to just hold Laurel close and rock her a bit more. Reaching into the carrier, she unbuckled the baby and then started the near inhuman twist of extricating a screaming child from a car seat. It was then that an ungodly noise ripped forth from Laurel startling them both. The noise was quickly followed by several others before the smell caught up to Sara. "oh god. Laurel. What was that?!"

Since she had quite literally magically appeared, Laurel had had a fairly regular schedule and had reacted to the introduction of food without much issue. But it appeared to Sara that Laurel had been suffering from a horribly painful bought of gas. Sara tilted Laurel to the side again, approximating her position from getting out of the car seat. The movement produced noise, but this time in the form of a giggle. Clearly Laurel was feeling much better. The giggle quickly shifted to a yawn, and Sara guessed that the worst had passed and maybe they would all get some actual sleep. She put Laurel back in the car seat and started the trip home. The 8 month old was asleep before Sara shifted the car into Drive.

She walked into the house again, this time finding less lights on and no sight of Ava. She brought the sleeping baby into her room and placed her in the crib after first checking that she was in a dry diaper and had the right amount of clothes - doing everything she could to avoid the baby waking up any sooner than necessary. With the emergency seemingly passed, Sara was now feeling her exhaustion as well. She crept into their bedroom as quietly as possible, removed her shoes, and crawled in to bed dressed as is. She curled up against Ava's back and reached an arm around her wife. Though she always tried to avoid waking her, Ava was almost sure to wake up. But two days with a crying baby had worn her out. She shifted a bit but only to pull Sara's arm closer. Sara snuggled further in, being comforted by Ava's scent and quickly drifted to sleep.

\--

Ava woke some time later and turned to find Sara laying on her back. She had had a vague feeling of Sara being wrapped around her at some point but was still half between awake and asleep and didn't care how they were sleeping, just that she was close. She turned further to rest her head on Sara's shoulder and fell back asleep.

\--

Hours later she was woken up by the sound of gurgling and sighs. Cracking open an eye, she found Laurel now laying between her and Sara, the baby's eyes heavy with sleepiness and her wife resting her own eyes. Feeling Ava move Sara mumbled out "good morning".

"Morning." hearing her mom's voice, Laurel cooed louder. "And good morning to you." Ava couldn't understand. The screaming, angry baby had disappeared and her sweet and adorable Laurel had returned. She couldn't help the pang of inadequacy that rushed through her. She hadn't calmed Laurel down in two days. Sara was with her a few hours and the baby was back to herself. Before she could fall further down the thought spiral she heard Sara say, "it was gas," but mumbled half into her pillow.

"What?" Ava was leaning over Laurel offering her finger for the baby to grab onto and chew on.

Sara rubbed her eyes and adjusted her head on the pillow to better face her family. "The crying. Laurel had gas."

"That wasn't her gas cry." Ava responded, a bit of defense in her voice. She knew all of Laurel's cries and noises.

"Oh no. This wasn't regular gas. This was an unholy level of gas."

"Unholy?" her tone asking for more explanation.

Sara lifted herself up on one elbow to look more directly at her wife "Ava, if Laurel was a rocket ship, she'd be most of the way to Mars already. I cannot begin to find the words to describe the sound that came out of our child. And the smell." Sara paused with a look of abject disgust on her face "It made me question every thing we've ever fed her. In her entire life."

"Gas?" Ava asked in disbelief. "That was all over gas?"

"Yes. But like, so much gas." She turned her attention to the baby who's eyes were beginning to droop again. "So much. And then all of a sudden it made it's way out. It surprised us both." She smiled down at Laurel.

Looking down at the smiling baby, Ava let it sink in a moment. "Wait. How?" she looked back to Sara, "I tried everything?"

Sara looked at Ava again "Well, when I left I took her in the stroller a while and then into the car. We had walked and driven almost 2 hours. And she was still screaming. I was down by the boardwalk so I thought maybe the lights on the river would calm her. But I didn't feel like hauling the car seat. And when I twisted her out of the car seat, she let it rip. And Ava. I mean it. I think she broke the sound barrier." Sara sounded equal parts baffled and proud.

"Gas." Ava said one more time, sinking back onto her pillow, watching her smiling baby watch her thorough heavy eyes.

"Yup." Sara settled back into her pillow, too. "Nate's going to be so proud when he hears the story."

"Yeah." Ava's voice was drifting off.

"Yeah." Sara echoed before sleep claimed her again, too.


End file.
